Sports 'N Torts

This week on Sports 'N Torts, I sit down with Atlanta attorney Maggy Randels, co-founder of the newly launched Randels Billamoria Firm (aka “Notorious RBF Law”). Maggy’s passion for advocacy is only rivaled by her love of tennis — and in this fast-paced and fun conversation, we cover everything from clerking for a tennis-loving federal judge, to launching a boutique personal injury practice, to planning her dream Wimbledon trip.

Whether you’re a lawyer, a tennis nut, or just someone who appreciates authenticity, this episode is full of great stories, useful insights, and more than a few laughs (an...

In Episode 155 of Sports 'N Torts, I sit down with Shuli Green, a seasoned lawyer and mediator with an impressively diverse career background. Shuli shares her wealth of experience in handling cases on both the plaintiff and defense sides, including personal injury, business, insurance, media law, and First Amendment cases. She discusses how her varied career has shaped her unique approach to mediation and offers valuable insights into the challenges and strategies involved in settling complex cases. Shuli reflects on her time with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, her work on the Richard Jewell case, and her transition...

In this episode, I sit down with my friend and fellow Atlanta trial lawyer, Robert Glass, for a wide-ranging conversation on law, leadership, mentorship, and adventure. Robert shares how his journey from corporate litigation to plaintiff’s work was shaped by relationships, grit, and a passion for helping people.

Robert discusses building a law firm with his Law School friend and partner, James Robson (Episode 96; 2/6/24), and the lessons learned in 10+ years of growing a boutique litigation practice that prioritizes people over volume. From hiring strategies to case selection to maintaining authentic client relationships, Robert offers a candid lo...

In this special Masters edition of Sports ‘N Torts, I reunite with OG podcast guests and good friends Moses Kim and Andy Goldner to break down what we all felt was one of the most unforgettable Masters tournaments in recent memory. From Rory McIlroy's emotional and long-awaited triumph completing the career Grand Slam to Bryson DeChambeau’s back-nine stumble, to Justin Rose’s serge to the playoff, the trio relives every high and heart-pounding moment of the 2025 Masters.

This was fun because we shared our firsthand stories from being able to attend the Masters in person this week...

Welcome back to Sports 'N Torts! In Episode 152, we are joined by Chris Glover, a highly respected trial lawyer and managing attorney at the Atlanta office of Beasley Allen. Chris has built a stellar reputation in the legal community through his advocacy for injured clients and his leadership in the field of personal injury law.

What We Cover in This Episode:

-Chris’s journey into law and what inspired him to become a trial lawyer.

-The importance of mentorship and leadership in a law practice.

-Insights into running a successful plaintiff’s fi...

Baseball is back, and it's time for our annual Braves Sports 'N Torts season preview episode! As has become tradition, I am joined by baseball men Josh Gernatt and Casey Collins to break down the Atlanta Braves' upcoming 2025 season and the broader MLB landscape.

Topics covered:

⚾ Braves' 2024 struggles with injuries and why 2025 is set to be a bounce-back year

⚾ Key offseason moves and how the roster shapes up

⚾ Rotation expectations: Can Spencer Strider and Chris Sale lead the staff? Who will fill out the rotation?

⚾ Bullpen breakdown and new addition...

It’s that time of year again—March Madness is here. I am joined by Sports ‘N Torts regulars Bo Patel and Laurence Kessler for our annual NCAA Tournament preview. In this milestone 150th episode, the guys break down the bracket, discuss key matchups, highlight sleeper teams, and debate which squads have the best path to the Final Four. Laurence comes at the discussion as a UGA fan with a team that finally made the dance and Bo as an Auburn fan with a team sitting with with the number 1 overall seed.

The conversation covers everything from SEC do...

In this episode, we sit down with the dynamic Winter Wheeler—attorney, mediator, arbitrator, TEDx speaker, author, and all-around powerhouse. Winter shares her journey from defense attorney to becoming one of the most sought-after mediators in the business, shedding light on her empathetic yet strategic approach to resolving disputes.

We dive into:

✅ Her path to mediation and what makes a great mediator

✅ The power of empathy and emotional intelligence in legal negotiations

✅ Lessons from her TED Talks on handling difficult conversations and being a working mother of 4

✅ Juggling a high-power...

Adam Taylor joins Sports ‘ N Torts for Episode 149. You think you are busy? Well, Adam has different law firms practicing two different types of law. At Taylor, Hughes & Zahler, Adam handles personal injury cases and has been for over a decade. More recently, after Covid, Adam founded the Your Legacy Lawyer law firm focusing on Wills, Trusts and Estates and helping his clients protect their legacy. Two very different firms but with similar missions of helping people with their legal needs. We spend most of our time talking about his Your Legacy Lawyer firm and dive into all aspects of...

Michael Geoffroy joins Sports ‘N Torts for episode 147. Michael is a lawyer with offices in his hometown of the Conyers/Covington area. I call Michael a “Lawyers Lawyer” because of the professionalism, grace and passion with which he practices law. He is known in Georgia as a leader in the courtroom and in the community and has held numerous leadership positions within the State Bar. This guy has been doing it right for over 20 years.  This was a unique episode as we just had a free flowing conversation that spanned all sorts of topics of the law, business, family, sports...

Alvaro Arauz from 3A Law Management joins the podcast for episode 146. Alvaro was a guest on the podcast last January and has been an often requested guest to come back. So here he is for Round 2. We spend the hour talking solely all about legal marking. He delivered a master class on marketing that included:

-The hustle it takes to succeed

-Always add value

-How can you give back in a relationship

-Consistency in marketing

-Taking marketing global

-The speaking tour

-Putting yourself in a...

Darl Champion of the Champion Firm joins us for episode 145 of Sports 'N Torts. Darl grew up in North Carolina as the son of a college professor. School was not initially for Darl and his entrepreneurial spirit had him heading down the road to becoming an auto mechanic and running his own auto shop. Ultimately he ended up at Law School and that same entrepreneurial spirit has him successfully running his law firm - The Champion Firm. I could have talked for Darl for days.

We discussed:

-being a parent as the most important job...

Rishi Pattni of Pattni Law Group and Andrew King of Chance, Forlines, Carter & King, PC join us for Episode 144 of Sports ‘N Torts. Their friendship was forged over a passion for Premier League soccer and has turned into a professional relationship where these two can work with one another representing injured patients in medical malpractice cases. This was a cool episode that highlights the collegiality and partnerships that exists within the Plaintiffs bar in the State of Georgia. I had a great time talking with these guys about:

-vetting and handling medical malpractice cases;

-approach to...

Zack England from England Injury Law in Chattanooga, TN joins Sports ‘N Torts for Episode . A native of North Georgia who grew up on the Georgia/TN line, Zach talks about his law practice working on cases in both Georgia and Tennessee. We discuss:

-Growing up on North Georgia;

-Law School in Cincinnati, Ohio;

-Returning to work in Chattanooga, TN;

-Joining a law firm and then making the decision to open his own firm;

-Opening a law firm during Covid;

-The Growth of Chattanooga as a city;

Happy New Year everybody! In this episode Josh and Dana rehash all that was 2024 and look forward to 2025. They discuss:

-major events in their personal lives in 2024;

-J. Stein Law Firm Year in Review and discussion on top cases;

-update on the podcast and favorite episodes of 2024;

-plans for 2025;

-updated marketing plans for the new year;

-Josh answers your most frequent questions of 2024;

-and much more!

As always this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm – a personal injury la...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the nation to recap this week in college football. In this episode we discuss:

-ND outlasting Penn St and Ohio State beating Texas to set up a ND-OSU national championship game;

-Coaching in the semifinal round;

-preview of ND v. OSU;

-Atlanta as a National Championship Game venue;

- transferring to Miami;

-State of QB’s entering the NFL;

-Coach Prime to Dallas?

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm – a pers...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Round 2 of the 2024 college football playoffs and preview Round 3. We discuss:

-UGA losing to ND in the Sugar Bowl and what went wrong;

-what UGA needs to do in the offseason to prepare for 2025;

-recap of Round 2 games;

-discussion on all higher seeds winning and all teams with the bye week losing;

-preview of OSU/Texas and PSU/ND in semifinals.

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm - a personal...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to preview the 2nd round of the 2024 college football playoffs. We discuss:

-recap of round 1 games;

-how to tweak the system to get less blowouts;

-preview of round 2 games;

-UGA vs ND in the Sugar Bowl;

-Carson Beck going pro;

-the current Bowl Season

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm - a personal injury law firm in Atlanta, GA - www.jsteinlawfirm.com

Laura Moore from Moore Injury Funding invited me to be a guest on her podcast "Its Time for Moore Injury Funding" where we discussed how to evaluate and value personal injury cases. In addition to how look at injury claims, we discusses the importance of evidence, experts, venue and other intangibles in arriving at proper value for an injury cases. We discuss economic and non-economic damages and how lability factors into an overall evaluation. I hope you enjoy me being on the other side of this Question and Answer session!

Moore Injury Funding specializes in a diverse...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to preview Week 1 of the 2024 college football playoffs. We discuss:

-How UGA spent the off week including post season awards won by the players

-Problems with the Winter Transfer Portal and how to fix it

-Preview of the 4 playoff games

-Heisman Trophy ceremony

-Bill Belichick to UNC

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm – a personal injury law firm in Atlanta, Ga – www.jsteinlawfirm.com

Michael Melonakos of the Melonakos Firm of Greenville, South Carolina joins us for episode 136. Mike and I used to work together at Goodman McGuffey Lindsey & Johnson and it was great catching back up. Mike moved to South Carolina in 2018 and opened up his own Plaintiffs personal injury firm – moving to a city where he did not have any professional connections. Hear how he made it work. We also talk about Mike’s two favorite hobbies – playing music and the Detroit Lions. Mike is a super interesting guy with great thoughts on a bunch of subjects. We bounced around on this e...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 15 of the 2024 college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating Texas to win the SEC

-Carson Beck gets hurt and what that means for UGA

-4 Conference Championship Games Recap

-Final College Football Playoff Rankings and Seedings

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet of the Week Year in Review

-Jimbo of the Year

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Fim – a personal injury la...

Arthur York joins Sports ‘N Torts for episode 134. A native Georgian, Arthur is an attorney in Atlanta handling personal injury cases with an emphasis on premises liability.

In this episode we discuss:

-cutting his teeth on slip and fall cases;

-learning the practice of law from the plaintiff and defense standpoint;

-opening up his law firm and decisions he has made along the way about growth;

-view of marketing and positioning himself for premises liability cases;

-tasteful social media posts;

-nuts and bolts of vetting an...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 14 of the 2024 college football season. This week we were pleased to have Texas Longhorn fan and host of the Dirty Verdict podcast Peter Taaffe join us. We discuss:

-UGA beating Tech in an epic 8 OT thriller

-Texas beating A&M to punch a ticket to SECCG and Peter in attendance in College Station (with his son making a key interception)

-Rivalry Week and OSU losing to Michigan

-Updated playoff pictures and our predictions on how it all shakes out<...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 13 of the 2024 college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating UMass

-Chaos in the SEC

-UGA making the SECCG

-Updated look at the college football playoff rankings

-our thoughts on scenarios and how this all plays out

-Preview of UGA-Ga Tech

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbo of the Week

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Fim – a...

Steve Litner joins Sports ‘N Torts for episode 131. A native Bostonian holding degrees from University of Maryland, University of North Carolina and University of Florida, Steve has a wide range of knowledge and background that helped him in his law practice. Steve is the founding partner of the Atlanta law firm Litner + Deganian. In this episode we discuss:

-his background as a teacher, counselor wrestling coach and in special education;

-how this background has shaped his approach to his law practice;

-working for a big firm in securities law during the 2008 financial crisis;

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 12 of the 2024 college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating TN in an epic night in Athens, GA

-Current power rankings in the SEC and where all the teams stand

-Updated College Football Playoff rankings

-Scenarios to watch for

-Current status of Big 10

-Preview of UGA-Umass

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbo of the Week

As always, this episode is powered by...

A mediator, a plaintiffs lawyer, a defense lawyer and a wannabe podcaster walk into a bar…while that sounds like a great start to a joke, it is episode 129 of Sports ‘N Torts. Each with their musical instruments as members of their band Better By Daylight, it was so awesome having Joe Murphey (on the drums), Bobby Johnson (on bass guitar) and Sam Britt (singing and on guitar) join the podcast this week. Each are lawyers in Atlanta, and they are in a music band together. We start the podcast with them putting on a live concert (they are absol...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the nation with a recap of Week 11 of the 2024 college football season. We discuss:

-UGA losing to Ole Miss and where UGA goes from here

-Bama beating down LSU

-Current state of the race to the SECCG

-Breakdown of this weeks top 12 in the CFB Playoffs

-Big 10 with 4 of the top 5 teams

-Preview of UGA vs TN

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbo of the Week

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

<...

Zach Shewmaker joins episode 127 of Sports ‘N Torts. Zach is a founding partner of the law firm of Horst Shewmaker. Based in Alpharetta, Zach and his partner Michael Horst opening their firm in 2019 and have seen steady and impressive growth. Zach has has a refreshing approach to law firm management, the business of law and developing/litigating personal injury cases. Zach also has a bunch of interesting hobbies outside of work. We dig into a lot in this episode including:

-his playing college golf and his ability use golf as an analogy for life and business

...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 10 of the 2024 college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating FL and what is wrong with Carson Beck

-Current power rankings in the SEC and where all the teams stand

-OSU beats PSU while Indiana keeps winning

-ACC down to Miami and SMU

-Preview of UGA-Ole Miss

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbo of the Week

As always, this episode is powered by the...

Blade Thompson from Blade Injury Law joins the podcast for episode 125. Blade is a personal injury lawyer in Atlanta who has a solo law firm that he runs just about as efficiently as any lawyer out there. Blade grew up in a small town and shares his motivation for becoming a lawyer and why he has chosen to become licensed to practice law in 3 states.

In this episode we discuss:

-the processes used to run his law firm;

-why organization is so important to law firm management;

-how his prior jobs...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 9 of the CFB season. We discuss:

-how UGA (and us) spent the bye weekend

-current standings in the SEC and what the race to the SECCG looks like

-TAMU beating LSU to grab top slot of SEC

-Bama and Texas winning and moving on

-Coach Prime becoming bowl eligible

-Our own Kennesaw State Owls winning their first D1 game

-IU remaining undefeated

-Sucker Bet

-Jimbo of the Week

Allen McDuffie and Jeff Yashinsky join Sports ‘N Torts for Episode 123. Jeff and Allen were my first bosses at my first law firm job after Law School at the Progressive In-House Law Firm. Jeff, along with our friend Tara Parker, were the ones who interviewed me while I was a 2nd year law student at UGA and somehow I convinced them to offer me a job. We had a great time reminiscing about all working together and we picked up like we had never left off. Whatever success I may have had as a lawyer – I owe a lot of i...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 8 of the college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating #1 ranked UT and Jason's trip to Austin for the game

-Bama loses again and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs

-are LSU and TAMU for real?

-Contenders and pretenders in the Big 10

-Miami survives again

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbo of the Week

As always, this episode is powered by the J. Stein Law Firm - a personal injury law firm...

This was really fun. Sports ‘N Torts joined up with Texas lawyers Pete Taaffe, Kyle Herbert and Bill Ogden who host The Dirty Verdict podcast out of Houston on this collaboration episode. These guys are some of the best in business in handling, litigating and mediating cases in Texas. Our two podcasts joined together for a special preview episode of the October 19, 2024 University of Georgia v. University of Texas game. If you are a loyal listener you will enjoy hearing the views from Longhorns fans and us going back and forth with each other. If you are new to th...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the nation to recap Week 7 of the 2024 college football season.

We discuss:

-UGA beating MSU

-Close games all across the SEC and the new parity in the league

-Big 10 getting tight games with highly ranked teams early in the season

-Coaches blowing it at the end of games

-Army and Navy ranked in Top 25

-Preview of UGA vs Texas

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet of the Week

-Jimbe of...

Alan Holcomb joins Sports ‘N Torts for Episode 119. Alan is a graduate of UGA and Emory Law School. Alan is a lawyer in Atlanta who has been widely recognized for his legal prowess and trusted experience as a trial lawyer in serious injury cases involving trucking accidents, product liability, traumatic brain injuries, burn injuries, medical malpractice and mass torts. I have been trying to schedule this podcast with Alan for quite some time – but he has been busy representing his clients in Court and obtaining a $495,000,000 jury verdict – no, that is not a typo and yes, that is a lot of...

Josh, Jason and Laurence take you around the country to recap Week 6 of the college football season. We discuss:

-UGA beating Auburn for the 8th straight year

-Upsets in the SEC including Vandy beating Bama, Mizzou losing to TAMU and Arkansas beating Tenn

-Shake up in the AP Top 10

-Miami holding on vs Cal

-Big games in Week 7 including OSU-Oregon

-Preview of UGA-MSU

-J. Stein Law Firm Injury Report

-Sucker Bet

-Jimbo of the Week

As always, this episode...

Randy Edwards from Cochran & Edwards joins us for episode 117 of Sports ‘N Torts. Randy is a trial lawyer in Atlanta, GA who handles cases in Business Litigation, RICO, Personal Injury/Wrongful Death and Insurance Coverage/Bad Faith. Prior to attending Law School and becoming a lawyer, Randy was a 4 year letterman and 3 year starter as a defensive lineman for the University of Alabama where he played for legendary Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and was named permanent captain by his Alabama teammates. Randy went on to play 4 years for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. He was primarily a “nickel” pass-rushe...